


Mind Control

by Fuinixe



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, FebuWhump2021, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Medical Torture, Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Temporary Character Death, What-If, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29192373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuinixe/pseuds/Fuinixe
Summary: What if Kozak had mind control tech at her disposal and used Nicky to experiment on Joe?
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143242
Comments: 12
Kudos: 70
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Mind Control

Joe woke with a gasp. The last thing he remembered was a syringe stabbing into his neck, his muscles seizing up as he fell to the floor next to his beloved. Nicky? Where was Nicky?

There - standing to the right, just a couple feet away from him. Joe’s eyes caught on Nicky’s and he breathed out a massive sigh of relief. Not only was Nicky not strapped to an examining table as Joe was, he was already free, standing, and dressed. His shirt must have sustained a lot of damage, since he’d donned a spare lab coat as an extra layer. They were well on their way to escaping this place.

Except - Nicky wasn’t unbuckling Joe’s restraints. Some kind of ruse? Joe stopped flexing against his bonds and strained his ears to listen for noises of Merrick’s men nearby. The only thing Joe could hear was the faint, barely-there buzz of an intercom system that had been left on. Were they being watched? Joe continued scanning their surroundings for signs of danger.

Yes - there. There was at least one camera, over in the corner, partly obscured by a shelving unit. Joe would need to follow Nicky’s lead since he’d woken up ahead of him.

Joe’s gaze found Nicky’s again. Except…Nicky didn’t look so good, and in the few seconds that had passed for Joe to take stock of his surroundings, he still hadn’t said anything or even made a move towards Joe. He was standing upright, and his face had been wiped of blood splatters, but his pupils were different sizes. A head injury? And if so, why wasn’t Nicky healing?

Joe felt a lurch of fear in his stomach.

“Nicky? You okay?” he asked in an undertone, face crinkling in concern.

Nicky didn’t so much as blink.

“Nicolò? Talk to me, love,” Joe tried in Italian.

A muffled sound of a microphone being tapped sounded over the speaker system.

“Mr. diGenova,” came through the speakers. A feminine voice with a faint Eastern European accent. “The scalpel, with the number 10 blade, if you please.”

Nicky turned to a medical tray behind him and when he faced Joe again, he had a scalpel in his right hand, which Joe now noticed was covered in a nitrile glove. His facial expression had not changed one iota.

Joe’s body realized what was going to happen before the knowledge could filter into Joe’s conscious awareness. His heart started pounding in his chest, all the muscles in Joe’s body went rigid, and the hairs on his arms rose. Joe didn’t want to believe it, that somehow - somehow -

“I understand you have medical training of your own, Mr. DiGenova. Please remove the subject’s liver and deposit it into the receptacle marked ‘A’.”

The scalpel came down on Joe’s abdomen. He could not help his scream.

The next time Joe came to, he was fairly certain he had died. He was on his stomach, the sides of his head clamped in a brace of some kind, and all he could see was a white-tiled floor, which was spattered with his own vomit, judging by the smell. The toes of the boots Nicky had worn last night came into view, and Joe felt a wet swab over the uppermost knob of Joe’s spine. 

“Nicky,” Joe croaked. “Nicky, is that you?” The swab moved away, and Joe heard the sound of something wet landing in a rubbish bin. “Nicolò, it’s okay,” Joe said, impressing himself with how calm he was able to make his voice sound. What was happening to Nicky right now was one horror they’d been able to evade, so far.

“If you can hear me, we are going to be okay. I’ll be fine.” The _fwip_ sound of a syringe being uncapped. “I love you, darling. Everything will be -” A massive-feeling needle plunged into his spinal column, and Joe gasped with pain. “Everything will be alright,” he choked out. 

“I understand this must be very confusing,” the woman said over the intercom, voice devoid of emotion. “I do regret our methods, but our chief of security impressed upon me that you two were far too dangerous to operate on directly.” 

Joe could feel cold spreading out to his extremities from his heart. 

“It has given me an excellent opportunity to study the transferability of specific domain knowledge under our experimental drugged hypnosis protocol.” He wished this bedeviled woman would stop talking. 

“I feel very fortunate that Mr. diGenova has such extensive medical knowledge. I don’t suppose you have a similar ability level?” The first note of emotion crept into the woman’s voice: wistfulness. Joe could not feel his toes or fingers any more. “It would make Stage 2 much more convenient for me, when Mr. diGenova is our test subject and you act as my hands.”

_No. No. No._

Days later, after Nile had made her grand entrance and been forced to shoot Nicky in the head, after they’d all fought their way out of Merrick Pharmaceuticals, Joe is a parenthesis curled around his lover. He can hear Nicky’s teeth grinding against each other and choked whimpers dying in his throat. It is another nightmare.

Joe is saved from trying to decide whether or not to wake Nicky up when Nicky gasps awake. Joe tightens his arms around him.

“ _Sono qui, ya rohi_. I’m here. I’m here. We’re safe.”

“I saw it all, Joe,” Nicky chokes out.

Joe squeezes Nicky even tighter and nods against his shoulder blade. Nicky needs to speak it, to purge the darkness inside. “I know, darling.”

“In my dream, I - I had the scalpel in my hands. But instead of cutting you. I cut off my hands.” Nicky wrings his hands, harshly, and Joe grabs one of his wrists with the hand that is not wedged between their bodies, pulling it down to Nicky’s side.

“You were not in control, Nicky. You could not have stopped yourself.”

“I should have.” Joe wishes Nicky would let himself cry. It has been five days. 

“I should have.”


End file.
